President assures probe into alleged attack on Indian fishermen

The matter of the killing of an Indian fisherman in an alleged shooting by the Sri Lankan Navy has been taken up at the highest levels between the two countries.

Vice President Hamid Ansari today raised the issue with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Srisena during a bilateral meeting between New Delhi and Colombo in Jakarta.

After the meeting, Ansari said that the Sri Lankan president told him that he has ordered a "full investigation" into the incident. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Summit of Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), hours after the incident was reported.

22-year-old Britso died Monday after the Sri Lankan Navy allegedly opened fire at a group of fishermen in the Palk Strait. Both the Sri Lankan Navy and the Sri Lankan foreign ministry have categorically denied that such an incident took place.

"The president said he had heard about it (the incident) this morning and that he had spoken to the Chief of Sri Lankan Navy who had said that no such incident from the side of the Sri Lankan forces took place," Ansari told the media on board his special aircraft while returning from his two-day visit to Indonesia.

Apart from the Monday incident, as many as 76 Indian fishermen are in captivity of Sri Lanka.

According to news agency PTI, the vice president candidly conveyed to Srisena that something must be done by Sri Lanka about the recurring problem related to the Tamil fishermen as part of confidence-building measures. (India Today)

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